In a week long stay at the University of Portsmouth’s Business School, 30 members of Russian Railways’ (RZD) senior management have recently taken part in a financial training course set up with the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering (MIIT).
The program, also run in partnership with accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, is part of the managers’ MBA (Masters of Business Administration) degree, and is their second trip to the Business School.
The MBA programme requires its students to take part of their course in the UK as RZD corporate policy demands fluency in the English Language, and the course also represents an opportunity for its participants to learn about the British rail system and its privatisation.
The partnership between the two universities was initiated by Dr. Peter Andrew, principal lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Finance, after a visit to Moscow in 2009 and came about through Language School International.
About the partnership, Dr. Andrew stated:
“MIIT is the largest university specialising in railways and transportation in Russia so we’re very pleased to be working in collaboration with their students. The company was keen to link with Portsmouth Business School because of the high national ranking of our accounting and finance courses. It is an excellent partnership as the students benefit greatly by learning about global finance from a western perspective and improving their English language skills at the same time.”
At the end of their week long course, the managers received their certificates in a ceremony at the top of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth Harbour.
RZD, boasting 85,500km of track, is the second largest rail network in the world. It is also Russia’s largest employer with approximately 950,000 staff, and accounts for 2.5% of Russia’s GDP with assets worth over £55 billion. It has a virtual monopoly on rail travel in Russia, carrying approximately one billion passengers and a billion tonnes of freight per year.
